Spotify to Restrict New Releases to its Paid Users

According to The Verge, the Swedish based streaming service will allow certain new release to be streamed only by its paid users. Since the beginning, both free and paid users alike had the same type of access, but that'll end in a few months time.

Spotify, as well as its Global Head of Creator Services Troy Carter, have received a lot of criticism in the past from artists and labels and were accused of giving very low payouts. Do you remember that open letter written by Aloe Blac in 2014? He basically blasted all of the streaming services and called Spotify out specifically. Plus, Taylor Swift removed her songs from the streaming site, after saying that she wasn't being properly compensated.

Eventually, plenty of other artists expressed similar feelings and many signed exclusive deals with companies like Tidal or Apple. Spotify still didn't budge, however. In fact, Carter said making exclusive deals with artists were "bad for consumers and bad for the whole industry."

But now, Spotify will be changing their business model in an effort to be more attractive to future investors, since it'll soon go public. As of now, there's no word on when the change will take place, so until then stream all the albums you can, because the option to do that is vanishing before our very eyes.

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